Christian Yelich leads Brewers’ power surge in 7-4 win over Arizona

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Christian Yelich hit his second home run of the season, a three-run shot in the third inning that helped the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-4 on Thursday night.

Jackie Bradley Jr., Luis Urías and Avisaíl García also homered for the Brewers. Urías’ homer was his second in as many games and came on his 24th birthday.

Carson Kelly hit a two-run homer for Arizona, which left 14 men on base.

The Brewers entered Thursday batting just .211 , ranked 29th out of 30 major league teams – ahead of only Seattle. Milwaukee now has nine homers in its last two games. Their power display Thursday fueled the win despite being outhit 13-7.

Yelich and Bradley hit first-pitch homers off Jon Duplantier (0-1) during the Brewers’ four-run outburst in the third inning that opened the scoring. Yelich’s three-run blast barely cleared the wall in right field.

Reaching base hasn’t been a problem for Yelich since he returned from a lower back strain that limited him to one game in a five-week stretch from April 12-May 17. He owns a .391 on-base percentage.

But Yelich has been missing the power that helped him win the NL MVP award in 2018 and finish second in the balloting in 2019. His homer Thursday was just his fourth extra-base hit of the season. His other homer came off Brad Brach in the ninth inning of a 9-4 victory at Cincinnati on May 23.

After falling behind 4-0, Arizona got back into the game by scoring three runs in the fifth on Kelly’s homer and Nick Ahmed’s two-out RBI double.

Milwaukee extended the lead with two runs in the sixth, including Urías’ leadoff homer to left. The Diamondbacks cut the lead to 6-4 in the eighth and had runners on first and second, but Devin Williams struck out Kelly and Christian Walker to end the threat.

García delivered a towering shot to center off Seth Frankoff in the bottom of the eighth.

Brent Suter (6-3) struck out three in 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief after Brewers starter Brett Anderson allowed eight hits and three runs in 4 1/3 innings. Josh Hader struck out the side in the ninth for his 13th save in as many chances.

Anderson was ejected after the Brewers had already removed him from the game.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Diamondbacks: LHP Madison Bumgarner underwent an MRI that revealed some inflammation to his throwing shoulder. The issue forced him to leave his start against the New York Mets after only two innings Wednesday. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said team officials haven’t yet determined whether Bumgarner might be able to avoid a trip to the injured list, but added that “we’re hopeful that could be the case.”

Brewers: 2B Kolten Wong left the game in the fourth inning with left oblique discomfort. Wong was on the injured list with a left oblique strain in April.

TRANSACTIONS

The Diamondbacks acquired RHP Tyler Jones as the player to be named later in the Dec. 10 trade that sent RHP Zach Pop to the Miami Marlins.

The Brewers recalled LHP Hoby Milner from Triple-A Nashville. They had optioned RHP Alec Bettinger to Triple-A Nashville on Wednesday.

UP NEXT

The Brewers and Diamondbacks continue their four-game series in Milwaukee on Friday. Scheduled starters are RHP Matt Peacock (2-1, 4.50 ERA) for the Diamondbacks and RHP Freddy Peralta (5-1, 2.38) for the Brewers.